Kernes: Pity Poor Robert Peters

Obama & McCain Have No Time For His Insanity

NEW YORK CITY - Robert Peters, head of Morality In Media, has just put out another plea, this time to the vice-presidential candidates, begging them to "make public your position regarding enforcement of federal obscenity laws." It's the third or fourth such entreaty we've seen in the past few months, though all the others have been addressed to - and ignored by - the presidential candidates.

Last month, he wrote that "our nation is at a crucial juncture in the war against obscenity. ... The last thing this nation needs is another eight-year 'free ride' for hardcore pornographers. How then do we explain John McCain and Barack Obama's failure to state publicly whether they support enforcement of federal obscenity laws, despite repeated requests to do so? Frankly, I find this puzzling, since both candidates profess to be concerned about the family, children and moral values; and both are working to win the women's vote. Neither candidate is timid when it comes to abortion and homosexuality. Why then the silence on pornography?"

In his most recent screed, emailed today to supporters, "It is of course no secret that the United States has failed miserably at protecting children from exposure to hardcore 'adult' pornography," but of course, what Peters really wants is for the next president to "protect" adults from exposure to "hardcore 'adult' pornography," because after all, "According to the results of a national opinion poll commissioned by Morality in Media and conducted by Harris Interactive in April 2008, 75% of adult Americans will support him if he does."

But Bob seems to have missed the boat on one danger:

"Link between child porn and Muslim terrorists discovered in police raids," read the headline in the London Times Online.

"A link between terrorism plots and hardcore child pornography is becoming clear after a string of police raids in Britain and across the Continent, an investigation by The Times has discovered," wrote reporters Richard Kerbaj and Dominic Kennedy. "Images of child abuse have been found during Scotland Yard antiterrorism swoops and in big inquiries in Italy and Spain. Secret coded messages are being embedded into child pornographic images, and paedophile websites are being exploited as a secure way of passing information between terrorists."

The story, of course, plays well to the bigots who assume that Muslims, all of whom as we know conspired to bring down the World Trade Center towers, for which they'll be paid (as those on the planes already have been) with the opportunity to ravage 72 virgins in heaven when they die, are so prudish here on earth that they require their women to be covered head-to-toe with burkhas - but they really are perverts at heart, aren't they, hiding secret messages in photos of kids getting molested?

"It is not known whether the terrorists are just using the [pedophile] networks as a secure way to share data or if they are also involved in the production and propagation of the pornography," ponders the story on FirstPost. "Such a link is not being dismissed by police working on the cases. 'It shows that these people are very confused,' a source said. 'Here they are hating Western decadence but actually making use of it and finding that they enjoy this stuff.'"

Trouble is, nobody's yet explained why the "terrorists" would go to the trouble of hiding their "secret encoded messages" in child porn - which, if noticed, would quickly attract the attention of law enforcement even if the images had nothing to do with terrorism - when photos from Time or Newsweek - or Playboy - would serve just as well. Or maybe they think that kiddie porn is so vile that no self-respecting FBI guy would look at it, even to ferret out a "secret encoded message"? (Little do they realize that on Google News's front page just today are stories about an Indiana high school swim coach, a Pfizer executive and a New York state Senate aide convicted of or charged with possessing kiddie porn...)

But alas, we may never know:

"Anti-terror cops found out after launching a string of police raids across the UK and Europe," wrote Leon Watson for The Sun (world-famous for its scantily-clad "Page 3" girls). "Concerns within the Met Police led to a plan to find out more about the link. But the research was never carried out because the Met's specialist anti-terrorism unit was overwhelmed by cases it was having to deal with." [Emphasis added]

Whatthefuck? So they don't even know that "secret encoded messages" were being embedded??? So it might just all be some terror-cop's kiddie porn fantasy?

So I really can't understand why Bob hasn't picked this one up yet, since it's got all the makings of a great anti-porn screed: Muslims, child porn, terrorism, secret messages, sexual hypocrisy - boy, throw all that into a press release and the Big Bucks should come rolling in from contributors.

But no - sadly, Bob's had to make do with, "I understand that there are many pressing issues facing our nation, but evidence abounds that hardcore pornography, among other things, debases women, ruins marriages, corrupts children, and contributes to sexual exploitation of children, sexual trafficking, and forcible rape." (None of which is true, by the way ...)

But y'see, Bob, Americans have enough problems dealing with reality at the moment. The stock market's tanking; their homes, which may be heavily mortgaged, are now worth a shitload less than when they bought them; their wages aren't rising as fast as inflation; their schools aren't giving their kids a good education, especially if they live in the south ... or the ghetto; there's a war or two on; unemployment's above 15%, despite the official government figures; the Hubble's not working; former beauty queens are shooting moose from low-flying planes in Alaska; people got rickets; everybody wants to start a riot; 40-year-old women are eating spinach by the carload; the doctors haven't got a cure for cancer - and here's some hillbilly talking about how he doesn't like somebody's taste in entertainment. (apologies ...)

So, no, Bob, McCain and Obama - and Biden and Palin - aren't going to be talking about your little problem with porn anytime soon. They've got real issues to worry about. But you just keep pounding out your little memos on your little typewriter in your basement or attic or wherever these ideas occur to you, and one of these days, after the banks are solvent again, after 10% of the population's homes aren't being foreclosed on, after the dollar can hold its own against the Euro and the yen, after everybody's got decent healthcare, after all the public school teachers are up to snuff and probably well after Jenna Jameson has her twins, then - maybe - someone will pay attention to the fact that it bothers you that your (and everyone else's) dick gets hard when you/they see pictures of naked ladies.